A large market exists for practice aids to improve the golfing skills of recreational and competitive golfers. A focal point of this market is devices used to improve putting skills. Various types of devices are available to improve putting accuracy.
One type of device that has been developed is the simulated putting green used for practice in a basement, recreation room, back yard, etc. However, the natural lie of the terrain of a golf course leads to a practically infinite number of different situations which may be encountered by a golfer, and most such artificial devices do little to simulate some of the irregularities which can occur on a green, such as different slopes. While some earlier devices have seen the need to provide different slopes to simulate such conditions, such devices are generally cumbersome to set up, have limited or no adjustability, and/or have some other deficiency which makes their utility less than ideal.
Various other golf training devices and methods have been taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,141 to Jordan; U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,256 to MacLean et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,854 to Burke et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,640 to Sugarnan et al.; and the United States Application No. 2003/0236127 to Richter et al. The United States Application No. 2003/0236127 to Richter et al., for example, teaches a portable putting trainer suitable for indoor or outdoor use to provide feedback to the user concerning the speed of the putt and the direction of the ball. A ramp of the trainer presents an elevation angle ranging between 3 degrees and 30 degrees for the portion of maximum slope of the ramp. The slope of the ramp is made shallow enough such to cause only minor disruption to the smooth rolling of a putted ball. However, if the ramp is too steep, i.e., having the elevation angle of more that 30 degrees, the ball may strike the ramp and bounce up unpredictably, thereby disrupting the subsequent measurement and categorization of its final distance of roll beyond a hole defined by the trainer. If the ramp is too shallow in slope, on the other hand, it will require greater distance along the intended line of the ball in order to achieve the elevation necessary for the substantially horizontal upper surface of the trainer and subsequent distance categorization structures.
Unfortunately, none of these devices satisfactorily contemplate the development of “touch,” i.e., the ability to control speed in correlation with actual distance on a typical putting green. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved and effective practice device for practicing proper speed and direction of putting a golf ball that accurately correlates to the distance of a typical putting green.